In a vehicle control device disclosed in JP2008-233110A, a table (hereinafter, referred to as an “output characteristic table”) associating an accelerator pedal depression amount (hereinafter, referred to as an “accelerator operation amount”) with an opening of a throttle valve (hereinafter, referred to as a “throttle opening”) is stored in advance and the throttle opening is controlled based on the accelerator operation amount by referring to this output characteristic table. Two tables, i.e. a table for normal running and a table for running in slow traffic are stored in advance as output characteristic tables and the output characteristic table to be referred to is switched according to a running scene. The table for running in slow traffic is so set that the value of the throttle opening corresponding to the accelerator operation amount is smaller than in the table for normal running. In this way, drivability and fuel economy during running in slow traffic have been improved by reducing an output characteristic of an internal combustion engine during running in slow traffic than during normal running.